The Beauty of Trust
When I woke up this morning and looked out of my window, the sun was shining brightly. (Yes, even in Washington.) I heard the birds singing and saw the squirrels digging holes (in my lawn), storing their food for the winter. This thought immediately came to my mind:
“Oh what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day…”
As I was singing to myself and watching these little creatures squirreling away, preparing for winter, I realized how much God prepared the animals and nature itself to trust that what was needed would be provided; and I realized that I have not been totally trusting my Lord in this season of my life.
As you know, Gerry suffered the first of several small strokes three years ago, and so often I’ve pondered why. What can I do or what should I have done? How can I get through this?
So I felt the Lord speak into my spirit, “What can you do? TRUST ME. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I SEE AND I KNOW. TRUST ME!”
Webster’s Dictionary defines trust as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” Trust is dependent on what we know about the character of the one being trusted. Life is not always fair, but God is, and when we put our trust in Him, He works on our behalf.
In our times of difficulty, disappointment, discouragement and despair, we must trust in Him who is faithful. How?
• Remember His faithfulness in the past.
• Trust in Him — it will remove our stress in the circumstance.
• Cast your cares on Him — He will remove the pressure of the burden.
• Abandon your anxiety — He will help us to cease worrying about things
we can’t change or fix.
• Stop operating out of fear and believing the lies of the enemy.
• Don’t trust your feelings, but instead, lean into Him — feelings can be fickle,
but the Word of God is tried and true.
Again, trust is a resting of the mind on the character of someone else. God wants us to partner with Him, trust Him and do all that we can, while leaving the rest with Him.
Trust gives us peace of mind. His desire is that we let go and commit our situations to God, taking all thoughts into captivity. In fact, 2 Corinthians 10:5 in the Darby translation puts it this way: “…we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ.” Note, the text says, that we “lead” our thoughts — it’s actually our choice!
Trust rids us of faulty expectations — that a person, a job, or a possession will fulfill us and not disappoint us.
Trust in God allows us to look through the eyes of the Holy Spirit and see the enemy’s tactics in circumstances. “But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things]” (1 Corinthians 2:15, Amplified).
Trust releases our faith, and faith releases His power!
Then He gives us, when we trust Him, the confidence that we have a future and a hope. Confidence is to us what fuel is to an airplane: An airplane has the capability of flying, yet it remains on the ground without fuel. Confidence in His character is our fuel.
Lastly, our trust in Him births contentment in us because we know in whom we have believed and are persuaded that He is able (2 Timothy 1:12).
Our dear friend Jay Oaks, who has gone on to be with the Lord, always said, “We need to be satisfied with a dissatisfied satisfaction.”
As we look forward to entering this Thanksgiving season, may you be filled with gratitude for His blessing and provision each and every day. He who called you is faithful (1 Thessalonians 5:24), and He will meet your every need as you trust in Him. To Him be all the glory and honor!